178 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



20. Planting for Shelter. 



By Sir Hugh Shaw-Stewart, Bart. 



During the last three years I have planted a strip of ground 

 along the edge of Duchal moor near Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, 

 for the purpose of affording shelter to the young dairy stock 

 of several tenant farmers whose lands adjoin the moor. 

 Appended is a rough sketch (not drawn to scale). 



Duchal Moor 



The moor lies to the west of the farm-lands, and has a 

 rainfall of 60-70 inches per annum. Rising to a height, in 

 several places, of over 1000 feet, it is swept during many 

 months of the year by strong W. and S.W. winds. The 

 plantations lie between the 600 feet and 700 feet contour 

 lines, with an easterly exposure. 



So keen are the farmers to obtain some shelter for their 

 stock on these upper lands, that they have readily yielded 

 the necessary ground without asking for any reduction of rent. 

 Fifty yards was the width of the sections aimed at, but, in 

 order to obtain good dry ground along the outside of the 

 plantations, for the stock to stand on while sheltering from 

 the storms of wind and rain, the actual width is broader or 

 narrower according to the lie of the ground. 



Conifers — native Scots pine, larch, and spruce-fir — have 

 been planted from 3 feet to 4 feet apart, mixed with hardwoods 

 at from 10 feet to 15 feet apart. The hardwoods are principally 

 alder and birch, with sycamore and a few beech where the 

 ground is suitable. 



The young plants are doing very well where the ground is dry, 

 and where there is a little soil on the surface ; on the mossy, 





